Town Grows by 15% during Geocaching Mega-Event

Editor’s note: Geocaching HQ staff are joining geocachers at Mega-Events around the world to celebrate and share the adventure of geocaching. Kerb Lydick, aka KerbL , attended MOGA 2013 (GC3GN2E) in Shelbyville, Illinois, USA in April. Kerb has been a Volunteer Support Specialist and part of Groundspeak’s Volunteer Coordination and Support Team (VoCS) since 2011. This is Kerb’s account of her trip.

By Kerb Lydick -

When the theme of a Mega-Event is Cachelot-Quest for the Dragon’s Cache (see the official video). there are a wizard, knights and a sword in a stone involved, you know you’re going to have a good time. On April 5th Midwestern geocachers streamed into the small town of Lake Shelbyville. The population of just under 5,000 swell by more than 15% by our calculations. The bright orange lanyards round the necks of attendees could be spotted up and down main street, cross farm fields, and surrounding the 11,100 acres of Lake Shelbyville which this year celebrates it’s 50th anniversary.

Welcome to MOGA 2013

In it’s 10th year, MOGA (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure) was seamlessly organized Pam Rankin (Racer2814) and Tom Hankins (gossamer) and the team. I was thoroughly impressed with the level of attention their volunteer staff provided each and every geocacher from newbie to geocaching athletes and experts! From the satellite events surrounding the geocacher competition to the awards ceremony seemed to doubled as a MOGA family reunion and celebration of this legacy event, this team of organizers were simply amazing.

Friday night BYO…Bash Before the Big Bash #7 (GC43CH7) included a costume contest, live music by Patchwork, and magic by local magician Anthony W. Stockton (king0806)

During one particularly feisty day of geocaching with local celebrity and volunteer Reviewer Jones, and we came across two of these friendly and resourceful folks. I can still hear Reviewer Jones exclaiming ‘You’re the man Phil’ after we managed to safely replace The X Bridge (GC2P5F3) with the help of BeaverC2407 and BeaverC2605 (Phil) of Oswego. That’s me in the middle in the picture at the top of the post, smiling because we were unscathed.

Indeed Sir! The trials and tribulations of ActMoritz faced to pull the Sword in the Stone cache rivaled that of King Arthur.

The Sword in the Stone was a handmade wonder (created by sixrows). It was later auctioned off at the tune of $330, proceeds donated to the local school and host of MOGA Central. The craftsmanship and detail in this piece was inspiring to viewers who took eagerly jumped at the chance for a photo ops.

As I shared with all my fellow attendees during the event, it was perfection to spend a weekend with my two favorite groups of people, geocachers and Midwesterners. It doesn’t get any better than that, unless Merlin shows up…which he did.

The geocaching competition yielded over 61 teams and 46 individual competitors participated in this year’s competition. Winners are listed at the MOGA 2013 (GC3GN2E). Congratulations to all those dedicated geocaching athletes who participated in this amazing adventure.